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CCP Teams with Maryland
Environmental Trust to Offer Training for Local and
Regional Planners

CCP Spotlight is a feature of the In the Zone
e-mail service that highlights programs that have
been developed by the Chesapeake & Coastal Program
or through partnership and support from federal,
state and local partners helping to advance coastal
management in Maryland.

In January, CCP hosted its first conservation training
with Maryland Environmental Trust (MET)
to demonstrate the importance of incorporating tidal and
nearshore ecological data - the Blue Infrastructure -
and climate change adaptation benefits into parcel-level
conservation evaluations.The goal of
the training was to help inform local and regional land
conservation planners of new data and its benefit in
evaluating coastal zone properties.The combination of identifying Blue
Infrastructure and climate change effects of sea level
rise was in direct response to Maryland DNR's new climate change policy
for new land investments that requires the Department to
'proactively seek the protection of lands that enhance
the resilience of bay, aquatic and terrestrial
ecosystems' to potential impacts of climate change.

In order to meet this goal,
DNR
completed a Blue
Infrastructure Assessment to identify the state's
priority estuarine environments.This
detailed spatial assessment included coastal habitats,
critical natural resources, and associated human uses in
the tidal waters and near-shore area of Maryland's
coastal zone and links Maryland's terrestrial and
aquatic environments.

At the training, the assessment methodologies and
results were discussed to demonstrate how the data
contributes to prioritization systems to target
conservation and management activities and how the
results can be used to evaluate a property's coastal
habitats.
Evaluations of climate change adaptive benefits focused
on current and future adaptive capacity of a property.
These included estimating the potential
for wetland migration corridors with short-term and
long-term sea level rise scenarios, natural storm surge
buffering capacity, and living shoreline suitability for
erosion reduction.CCP is compiling new data that will help further
identify the potential for wetland migration corridors
using the Sea Level Affecting Marshes Model (SLAMM).
CCP anticipates having all potential
DNR
land acquisition and easements within the coastal zone
evaluated using new Blue Infrastructure and climate
change criteria.This will help
inform decision-makers about the properties' aquatic
ecological value and climate resiliency and
adaptability. To learn more about CCP's
project exploring coastal habitats and sea level rise, visit http://www.dnr.state.md.us/ccp/habitats_slr.asp.

The Blue Infrastructure data can currently be viewed on
the Coastal Atlas' Estuaries mapping tool and, in the
coming months, the climate change adaptive benefits
layers will be available on the Shorelines mapping tool.

Anyone interested in more information about this and
future trainings and workshops, please contact Chris Cortina
with the Chesapeake & Coastal Program at 410.260.8774.

COASTSMART
COMMUNITIES INITIATIVE NOW ACCEPTING PROPOSALS

Apply
Through CCP Grants Online by March 24

In partnership
with the National
Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), CCP is offering
competitive grants of up to $75,000 to local communities
for coastal hazards and sea-level rise response
planning. Municipalities and counties within Maryland's
coastal zone are eligible to apply for and receive
funds.

"Without significant preparation and planning,
communities foresee considerable losses to public
infrastructure, water dependent industries and
livelihoods...The
most cost-effective approach to dealing with the
anticipated impacts of climate change is to prepare for
these consequences before they occur."

-
Gov. Martin
O'Malley

Recent
CoastSmart
Communities projects have included: the development of a
strategic plan targeting sea level rise and climate
change in Anne Arundel County; a sea level rise
adaptation and response plan for the City of Annapolis
that includes a vulnerability and impact assessment as
well as outlines policy response options; improvements
to Caroline County's floodplain and stormwater
management programs; an integrated community and
watershed design project and transportation element for
the town of Queenstown; and improvements to stormwater
and coastal erosion management in several small Talbot
County villages.

To learn more about this opportunity as well as the
services offered by CCP to help communities reduce their
vulnerability to the impacts of climate change, please
visit the ﻿CoastSmartCommunities
Online
Resource
Center
at http://dnr.maryland.gov/CoastSmart/, or
e-mail the Chesapeake & Coastal Program staff at CoastSmart@dnr.state.md.us.

Gov.
O'Malley has affirmed his commitment to Bay restoration
by including $25M for the Chesapeake & Atlantic Coastal
Bays Trust Fund(Trust Fund) in SFY12, a 25%
increase over last year.The Trust
Fund, generated through motor fuel and rental car taxes,
provides support for the implementation of nonpoint
source pollution reduction projects.The
Fund is a key component in achieving Maryland's goals for
nutrient and sediment reduction set out the the Bay-wide
Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL), known also as the
"pollution diet."In addition to
funding State-wide indicatives, such as cover crops, and
tree planting,the Trust Fund provides support to local
governments and communities for achieving their
watershed restoration commitments under the Bay TMDL.For SFY12, $6.2M
has been identified to fund communities to clean up
local rivers and streams:

$2.88M for
Prince
George's County
to construct a large-scale urban stream restoration
in the Northwest Branch of the Anacostia
River

$1.2M for
Howard
County and the
Columbia Association for stormwater retrofits and
forest buffer restoration in the Little Patuxent
watershed

$640,000
for Baltimore
County and
Herring Run Watershed Association for stormwater
retrofits and forest buffer restoration in the
Back River

$500,000
for Harford
County to
construct four stormwater management projects in
Wheel Creek

$463,000
for Anne
Arundel
County to
construct and monitor an innovative sand seepage
stream restoration in a subwatershed of the
Magothy
River

$290,000 for the Sassafras River Association to
install wetlands and pilot poultry manure
incorporation technology within the watershed

$250,000
for the Town of
Centreville to manage
stormwater at the local wastewater treatment plant
in the Corsica
River
watershed

Funding Available
through Watershed Assistance Grant Program for
Engineering
and Design

Funding for project design available through the
WAGP

The Chesapeake Bay Trust (CBT) and the Maryland
Department of Natural Resources welcome requests for
technical planning and design assistance associated with
protection and restoration programs and projects that
lead to improved water quality in the Maryland portion
of the Chesapeake Bay watershed and the Maryland Coastal
Bays. The funding partners invite local governments and
non-profit organizations to submit requests for this
assistance. The purpose of this assistance is to help
grantees accomplish the earliest phases of restoration
projects. For the full Request for Proposals and detail
on this program, please click here.

The
Watershed Assistance Grant Program, a
joint program with DNR's
Chesapeake
and Coastal Program and CBT, is currently open to local
government and communities for watershed planning and
design grants. This round of funding closes
March 18, 2011.

For more information contact Hieu Truong at
CBT
at 410-974-2941 or Carrie Decker at
DNR
410-260-8723.

MARYLAND COASTAL
AND WATERSHED ADVISORY COMMITTEE

Next
Meeting: Friday, February 25

Special CWRAC
Training
Opportunity:Mary Owens (Critical Area Commission staff) will
discuss the Buffer Management Plan model ordinance and
the Buffer Resource Guide at the next CWRAC meeting on
Friday, February 25, 2011 at the Calvary
United
Methodist
Church in
Annapolis,
MD.Since an update to the Chesapeake and
Atlantic Coastal Bays Critical Area Law was passed in
2008, the Department of Natural Resources' Critical Area
Commission (CAC) has been
working to convert the Buffer regulations into ordinance
language that can be incorporated into local Critical
Area programs. The CAC is
currently developing model ordinance language for
counties and municipalities, and has begun partnering
with Adkins Arboretum to develop a Buffer Resource
Guide. The Buffer Resource Guide will include
sample Simple, Minor, and Major Buffer Management Plans
and accompanying implementation documents. The
presentation will provide training on the ordinance and
the resource guide.

Other topics to be discussed at the meeting include, (1)
developing the CWRAC 2011 agenda and (2) the election of
officers.

If you are
interested in attending the upcoming meeting or in need
of more information on CWRAC, e-mail Joe Abe with the Chesapeake & Coastal
Program or call 410.260.8740.

INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY
FUND ANNOUNCES LATEST RECIPIENTS

The
Innovative Technology Fund was
established with the goal of accelerating Bay
restoration through the improvement of water quality in
new and innovative ways.As part of the
State's
continuing effort to foster strong ties between
entrepreneurs and university researchers to restore the
Chesapeake Bay,
DNR
in partnership with Maryland Industrial Partnerships
(MIPS) has awarded two additional Innovative Technology
Fund projects.

A
biofouling screen full with algae is removed
from the water to be harvested. Photo by Pat
Kangas.

The
University
of
Maryland College Park
received a $89,828 MIPS grant to test a new technology,
biofouling screens, for removing nutrients and sediment
from the water column in an aquatic ecosystem.
The system consists of a single screen or a set of
screens attached to floats or a raft and suspended in
the water column.A biofilm of microbes quickly develops on the
screen which absorbs pollutants through biological
uptake and physical filtration.The
performance of the biofouling screen systems for water
quality improvement will be tested at the Constellation
Energy Corporation's Crane Power Facility.

The University of Maryland Center for Environmental
Science received a $89,961 MIPS grant to accelerate
research efforts into HY-TEK Bio's innovative approach
to reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the burning of
fossil fuels.UMCES researchers at
the
Institute
of
Marine
and Environmental Technology will work to determine the
best performing strain of algae to mitigate carbon
dioxide (CO2) and other
pollutants from flue gases while living in the unique,
controlled environment of HY-TEK Bio's patent-pending
scrubber system.HY-TEK Bio, LLC, is
a privately held Maryland-based corporation that is
helping industry improve its bottom line while reducing
its impact on the environment.

If you are a business or researcher interested in
applying for assistance, want to learn more
about a project, or if you have questions about the
Innovative Technology Fund, please e-mail
Sarah Lanewith
the Chesapeake & Coastal Program or call 410.260.8788.

We would like to extend our personal thanks and wish the
best of luck to Gwen Shaughnessy.After
serving for four years as our Coastal Hazards and
Climate Protection Specialist, Gwen recently took a
position with NOAA's Coastal Services Center.As living proof that the ability to convert ideas
into things is the secret to success, Gwen will be
adapting the tools and services that she created here in
Maryland and will be offering them nationally.

On behalf of the Chesapeake and Coastal Program Family,
we are not only grateful for Gwen's persistence,
dedication and leadership that put Maryland in the
forefront of climate adaptation, but we are very, very
proud of her.

Best of luck on what lies ahead!

-
the CCP Team

Please feel free to contact us
with any comments, questions or ideas for future IN THE ZONE
e-mails.

Sincerely,

Your Chesapeake & Coastal Program Team

Maryland Department of Natural Resources

A
publication of the Maryland Coastal Zone Management Program
pursuant to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Award No. NA10NOS4190204. This publication is funded (in
part) by a grant/cooperative agreement from the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The views
expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not
necessarily reflect the views of NOAA or any of its
sub-agencies.